User Reviews

The first movie I ever reviewed for IMDb was the John Agar "Tarantula," one of the better monster movies of the fifties. In it, Leo G. Carrol was attempting to come up with a nutrient to help with the world food shortage. Unfortunately, his partner decides to take the stuff and develops a horrible condition; meanwhile a spider escapes, and you know the rest. In this, a man has died and been left in a garage. It turns out he was part of some of the same kind of experimenting. A doctor finds he must investigate what happened and finds a trio of researchers, all having taken the stuff, despite limited experimentation. Now the problem is that the side effects indicate death is imminent. Unfortunately for the verisimilitude of the show, the solution to this is so silly and out of right field that it leaves one cold. An interesting idea followed by a simplistic resolution.

Doctors and sheriffs investigate the uncannily youthful body of a dead middle-aged man. Similar to the background story in 1955's 'Tarantula' (also directed by Jack Arnold), this episode of SF Theatre finds scientists concerned about a Malthusian apocalypse working on synthetic foods and discovering that the products make them susceptible to a deadly virus. Not much is done with the intriguing premise that the perfect food rejuvenates as well as nourishes and the 'virus' plot-driver and the resolution of the deadly dilemma is pretty weak. Not one of the better episodes of the old sci-fi anthology. Truman Bradley's introduction briefly discusses foods of the future and closes on one of the hoariest clichés in the genre: the 'food pill'.